The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) by Suchitra Chatterjee

on Stevie who was still fast asleep and I asked if I could check on the girls and Cassidy. I was told they were still asleep.
                  I sat down beside Mitch, reached out, and lightly touched his cheek. He winced.
                  “You need some ice on that,” I said.
                  “I need a fag.”
                  “I’d really like a spliff,” I replied, thinking of the drug dealer in my previous home and how his presence right now would be a gift.
    Adag came from giving Paul his medication, followed by the female officer a one Captain Lacks-Renton. Seb came out of the kitchen with a tray balanced on his lap whilst steering his wheelchair. Mitch got up and took it off him. Phoenix was still catatonic on the floor, staring into space.
                  “I used the last of your whiskey,” Seb said to Mitch. We had just taken a mouthful of our drinks when a soldier came from outside carrying Mitch’s old military radio.
                  “We found this Sir,” he said “And the car we are looking for, it’s in the garage.”
    We went still.
    Wolf looked at the radio, then he turned and looked at us.
                  “That’s mine,” Mitch piped up, “I used to be in the army.”
                  “Where is he?”
                  “Who?” Adag responded.
                  “Don’t screw around,” Wolf’s voice was harsh, “You know exactly who I am referring too,” he shook his head, “You had me fooled, I have to admit, you had me fooled into thinking you knew next to nothing.”
                  “Actually,” I said slowly, “We do know next to nothing.”
    It got worse from then on, if that was remotely possible. One of the soldiers randomly checked Phoenix’s computer and of course, what he had been looking at popped up. Then the computer in the office was checked.
                  We sat silently where we were. I saw Stevie stir on the sofa, but he didn’t waken.
                  “Search this place from top to bottom again,” Wolf said to his soldiers, who dispersed quickly throughout the building yet again. He then he turned to look at us, and I could tell he was furious though he spoke calmly.
    I wonder what he was mad the most about. Being fooled by a bunch of cripples or the fact we had broken into a government computer system, “Who accessed COBRA?”
                  I smiled then, I couldn’t help myself and he pointed a finger at me, “If you know half as much as I am beginning to think you might think you know, then you know this isn’t a game.”
                  “It stopped being a game when those Twice Dead ripped our friend apart and ate her alive,” I spat out “When were you going to tell us that your supposedly harmless contagion has turned most of the world’s population into the latest Zombie X-Box game with a penchant for tearing people apart and eating them alive?”
                  I was, Wolf later told me, one of only a few people who ever took him by surprise. My words shut him up for about 40 seconds.
                  Seb laughed, and the officer called Captain Lacks-Renton who had stayed with Wolf turned her head, gave Seb a hard look and said, “What’s so funny wheelchair-boy?”
                  “That’s a new one Seb,” I said to my fellow resident, “What name will she think of next, Cripple in a Tank?”
    Seb exploded with laughter and Mitch who had been taking a mouthful of coffee at the time spat it out, laughing along with Seb.
                  Captain Lacks-Renton moved forward, her black eyes flashing with anger, but Wolf held up his hand to stop her.
                  “Who accessed COBRA?”
                  “Phoenix,” I said and my eyes moved to the young man sitting on the ground,